Welcome, November! My October was very busy, so I’m looking forward to some time at home before the pace picks up as the holidays approach. Three out of the four weekends in October were spent in the Portland area, so I spent a lot of time (four hours-plus in each direction) in the car, but it was worth it for the opportunity to spend time with friends and family up north.

We managed to pack quite a lot into one such weekend, starting with a visit to Beilke Family Farm in Brooks, Oregon, just off of Interstate 5 and north of Salem.

My daughter discovered this gem last year, and we were eager to return again to fill up buckets of apples, pick out some Halloween pumpkins and choose some flowers, too. The Beilke family has been growing apples here since 1959, along with a host of other crops including blueberries, hazelnuts and all kinds of vegetables. It’s a very friendly and well-run operation . . . they’ve certainly worked out all the details over the decades.

We arrived around 10 on a cloudy and threatening-rain Friday morning, choosing to avoid the crowds we know descend on the place on the weekends. We grabbed a utility wagon and several 5-gallon buckets and had a quick chat with the gal running the farmstand. I asked which apples she would recommend for making pies and applesauce, and she identified Granny Smith, Melrose and Cripps Pink. She encouraged us to sample apples as we picked so we would be sure to get the varieties we liked (I liked that!). We then studied the sign which told us which varieties were ripe now (they need a proofreader on a few of those!) and plunged in.

The orderly rows were long, and fallen apples covered the ground beneath the trees, still leafily green. We marched down the well-marked corridors to where orange traffic cones indicated where the most heavily laden trees could be found.

The trees aren’t very tall but are quite dense, with many apples growing inside a tangle of branches. Granddaughter June perched atop her daddy’s tall shoulders to grab the brightly colored fruit on the upper branches while the rest of us reached in for lower apples tempting us under the leaves. It didn’t take long for us to fill our buckets with three or four different varieties of apples (after dutifully sampling each type, of course!). We also noted the posters scattered among the trees, providing a self-guided “tour” of the orchard, providing information about everything from making cider (it takes about 40 apples to produce a gallon of cider) to thinning the fruit for better production.

My husband and I then went to pay for the apples (a reasonable flat rate of $17 per full bucket) while my daughter and son-in-law took June and her baby sister to the pumpkin patch, where they chose from a wide selection of all kinds of interesting shapes and colors of gourds.   The rain, which had so kindly held off while we were picking, started moving in then, so rather than picking her own flowers from a large field of dahlias and zinnias, daughter Jenny chose to purchase a pre-gathered bouquet of them.   All in all, it was a very rewarding and, dare I say, fruitful visit to the farm!

The following evening found us gathering with long-time friends for an evening of ribs, potluck and wine. My brother- and sister-in-law from Texas were in town, giving us a great excuse to gather with our usual wine group and several others whose friendship stretches back at least to high school days. Our host, John, has a great outdoor kitchen from which he produced succulent racks of ribs, complemented by a wide range of side dishes each of us brought to the party. And it should come as no surprise to anyone who has read a few of my blogs, there was wine, LOTS of wine. I should note that not all of the bottles pictured here were consumed; a few proved well past their best, and others were set aside for another gathering when we realized we’d had enough.  We started with a few sparklers and worked our way through Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon and wrapped up with a late harvest Zinfandel and a Port-style wine from Washington state to go with our carrot cake dessert.

It’s always such a joy to gather with good friends and share food, wine, old stories and laughter. It also feeds my soul to spend time with my granddaughters and their parents, developing annual traditions like apple picking and pumpkin hunting. I’d drive a thousand miles or more, any time, to indulge in those pleasures again.

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor